The inaugural NBA Cup debuted to much skepticism last fall. Whether it was the somewhat confusing format that had to be explained by Steph Curry or the eyeball straining court designs, the new in-season tournament was initially panned as a cheap gimmick employed by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
However, the court of public opinion began to change as the actual tournament wore on. Fans were treated to competitive games with stakes early in the regular season and November ratings shot up as a result. We saw a competitive race to the championship round in Las Vegas, which saw LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers hoist the inaugural NBA Cup. But it wasn’t the champions who solidified the tournament as a success. Rather, that distinction belongs to the runner-up Indiana Pacers, who have carried that momentum all the way to a showdown with the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Let’s back up to last October. Indiana entered the new season with little expectation to do much of anything, opening the new campaign as betting longshots to win the NBA title. Understandable, considering that this was a franchise that had missed the playoffs three seasons in a row and hadn’t even won a playoff series since the Paul George/Roy Hibbert era a decade earlier. Sure, Tyrese Haliburton made his first All-Star team the year prior and showed flashes of being one of the league’s rising young stars. But this still seemed like a team destined to continue running on the dreaded “treadmill of mediocrity.”
But something fundamentally changed with this roster and we saw it during the in-season tournament. The Pacers posted a perfect 4-0 record in East Group A action, notably winning three games by single digits before trouncing the Pistons by 23. Haliburton, Myles Turner, and company proceeded to then upset the Celtics in the quarterfinal round before making a statement by taking out the Bucks in the semifinals. They’d of course lose to the Lakers in the final, but their surprise run was something that caught the attention of everyone.
That run was the catalyst for Indy establishing itself as a legitimate playoff contender and it bolstered those raised expectations by acquiring multi-time All-Star Pascal Siakam in January. Earning the No. 6 seed in the East, they’d take down the Bucks in the first round before winning a full seven-game series against the Knicks in Round 2. Critics will argue that the Pacers simply took advantage of both Milwaukee and New York being hampered by injuries to key players throughout those series. But a team with little prior playoff experience doesn’t just shut down Madison Square Garden in a Game 7 by accident. The Pacers were a team that knew what it took to win a high-pressure contest and them advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals can be owed a great deal to their run to the NBA Cup final.
Their success solidifies the in-season tournament’s place as an annual staple on the NBA calendar. If a young, up-and-coming team doesn’t have experience playing high-stakes contests that matter, the NBA Cup could serve as a perfect launching pad for future success. So if you’re a team like the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, or heck, even the lowly Detroit Pistons, I hope you’re paying close attention to Indiana this year. Because this could be you in the near future if you take those early-season tournament games seriously.